CHELONIA. 755 



snaps, making a peculiar barking noise owing to the friction of its hard serrated 

 jaws against each other. It appears to be a vegetable-feeder like the other species 

 of Batagur, but it invariably declines to eat in confinement, perhaps owing to our 

 ignorance of its natural food. 



It has a remarkable power of sustaining long fasts, as I had a specimen in my 

 possession which did not eat any food over a period of four months. 



Sub-Genus Morenia, Gray. 



Apertures of shell only slightly contracted ; alveolar surface of skull very broad 

 antero-posteriorly, and transversely rugulose ; tubercular, with a ridge internal to the 

 external alveolar margin, but conforming in distribution to the outline of the 

 latter, from which it is removed to some distance. A deep depression on the 

 alveolar surface of the premaxillaries. Posterior nares about the middle of the 

 base of the skull, covered by the shelving alveolar plate. 



Batagur (Morenia) Ocellata, Dum. and Bib. Plates Ix and Ixi. 



Emys ocellata, D. & B., Erpet. GeiiL, vol. ii, p. 329, 1835, pL xv, %. 1 ; Dumeril, Cat. Method. 



Rept., p. 14, 1851; Gray, Cat. Tort. B.-M. 1844, p. 18; Blyth, Journ. As. Soc, Bengal, 



vol. xxii, 1853, p. 645; id., l. c, vol. xxiv, 1855, pp. 481, pp. 712 ; Glinther, Rept., Brit. Ind., 



1864, p. 22. 

 Eatagur ocellata, Gcrd^j , Proc. Zool. Soc, 1856, p. 182, pis. x and xa; id., Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 



vol. xix, p. 348, 1857. 

 Bm^s herdmorei, Blyth, Journ. As. Soc, Bengal, vol. xxvii, p. 281, 1858; id., I. c, vol. xxxii, p. 82. 

 Kachuga herdmorei, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1869, p. 204; Theobald, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1870, p. 676. 

 Clemmys ocellata, Straiich. Chelon, Stud., 1862, p. 33; id., Vertheil. Schildkr., 1865. p. '^^,pars. 

 Batagur herdmorei, Theobald, Journ. Linn. Soc, vol. x, p. 16, 1868 ; Journ. As. Soc, Bengal, 



vol. xxxvii, ex. No., 1868, p. 12, pi. , figs. 2. 

 Morenia herdmorei, Gray, Suppl. Cat. Shd. Rept., B.-M., 1870, p. 62; id.. Hand List, Shd. Rept. 



B. M., 1873, p. 55; Theobald, Descr. Cat. Rept. Ind., 1876, p. 17. 



The adult female shell is a moderately long oval about 8*25 inches in extreme 

 length in a straight line, and is high, and well arched transversely. It is concave on 

 either side of the first vertebral, and similarly so above the eighth, ninth and tenth 

 marginals. The margins are not reverted, nor are they serrated. The sternum is 

 broad, flat, and keeled from the axilla to the groin. There are distinct indications of 

 a vertebral ridge on all the vertebrals, and on the third and fourth plates the ridge 

 becomes nodose. The nuchal is much longer than broad, and is generally Hnear, 

 with the point anterior, although some may be observed with the posterior end 

 narrower than the anterior. The vertebrals are generally much broader than long, 

 although in some the length equals the breadth. The first vertebral has its first mar- 

 ginal borders meeting at an obtuse angle, the lateral margins are generally convex 

 on the posterior two-thirds, but concave on the anterior third, the breadth, however, 

 between the anterior angles being little greater than that of the posterior diameter. 



